The Most Chilling Detail in the U.S. Attack on an Iranian Naval Ship

The U.S. Navy’s attack on an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, on Wednesday was the first time an American submarine has sunk an enemy ship since World War II. But the Dena may not have been armed because it was returning from an international exercise in the Indian Ocean, and the U.S. Navy likely knew it because it was taking part in the same exercise. 

Both the United States and Iran were taking part in the MILAN 2026 exercise, organized by the Indian Navy, on February 15–26, with the U.S. sending a maritime patrol aircraft and Iran sending the Dena. Iranian sailors from the ship paraded on land before India’s president.

The exercise in question required ships not to carry any ammunition. Normally, the Dena carries various missiles and guns, including anti-ship missiles. Because the U.S. also took part, it would have been aware that the Dena was unarmed. Former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal accused the attack of being “premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship’s presence in the exercise.” 

“The US has ignored India’s sensitivities as the ship was in these waters because of India’s invitation,” Sibal said in a post on X. The Iranian ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, condemned the attack and said the ship was unarmed. 

“We will respond to this assassination very strongly. This ship was unarmed and in a regular maneuver at sea. I think that the United States and the Zionist regime want to disturb and destroy all the international law and international norms,” Fathali said. 

At least 87 sailors were killed in the torpedo attack in international waters in the Indian Ocean, and the Sri Lankan navy responded to the Dena’s distress call and rescued 32 survivors, but 61 members of the crew are still missing. The U.S. didn’t respond to the call, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth crowed about the attack to reporters on Wednesday. 

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth said, calling it a “quiet death.” As a result of the attack, an Iranian supply tanker that was also near Sri Lanka, the IRIS Bushehr, has taken refuge in the island country.  

The sinking of the Dena seems to be part of Hegseth’s new policy of ignoring “stupid rules of engagement” and “punching them while they’re down,” and it raises questions of what the Trump administration would say if a country like Iran attacked an American ship it knew was unarmed. 

The House voted 219–212 against a war powers resolution Thursday, refusing to place limits on President Trump’s powers as he continues his war on Iran alongside Israel. Four Democratic representatives voted with Republicans to kill the measure.

The resolution, co-sponsored by GOP Representative Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna, would immediately block any U.S. military action without congressional approval under the 1973 War Powers Resolution. While it faced a massive uphill battle to become a law, it was an opportunity for representatives to state plainly whether they support this war.

On Wednesday, the Senate killed a similar measure by a vote of 47–53 after Senator John Fetterman switched sides to vote with Republicans.

Here is every Democrat in Congress who voted not to rein in Trump:

1. Senator John Fetterman (Pennsylvania)
2. Representative Henry Cuellar (Texas)
3. Representative Greg Landsman (Ohio)
4. Representative Jared Golden (Maine)
5. Representative Juan Vargas (California)

Just two Republicans, Representatives Thomas Massie (the resolution’s co-sponsor) and Warren Davidson, chose to support the resolution, splitting from Trump and the party.

Kristi Noem appeared not to know she’d been fired Thursday afternoon as she spoke before an audience of law enforcement officials.

As Donald Trump announced Noem’s sudden ouster on social media, the Homeland Security secretary was in the midst of delivering the keynote address at the Major Cities Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Law enforcement officials asked questions and offered praise to Noem—but not one asked about her dramatic title change.

At one point, Noem teased Trump’s plan to unveil his “Shield of the Americas” policy on Saturday, where he would be joined by other cabinet secretaries to discuss his plan to combat cartels and drug trafficking. It was unclear whether she was aware that Trump had reassigned her as the program’s “special envoy.”

Fox’s White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported on X that Trump had spoken to Noem shortly before posting the announcement to Truth Social.

Still, Noem repeatedly spoke about her upcoming work as DHS secretary as if her schedule had not just been cleared. She promised to meet with New York state sheriffs “real soon” and said she’d “continue to talk” to governors and state legislators about coordinating with federal immigration enforcement. While Noem may be in office until the end of March, her repeated commitments sounded surreal given that she’d just been sacked.

“I hope you have fun, I’m sorry I can’t stick around,” she said at the end of her speech, pausing for a brief photo op and then rushing offstage.

Shortly after she disembarked the stage, Noem released a statement thanking Trump for her new made-up title. “The Western Hemisphere is absolutely critical for U.S. security. In this new role, I will be able to build on the partnerships and national security expertise, I forged over the last 13 months as Secretary of Homeland Security,” she wrote on X.

Noem’s stint as head of DHS truly fell apart this week after she crumbled during back-to-back hearings before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. In addition to repeatedly lying under oath, Noem couldn’t explain away a $220 million border security ad campaign starring herself—that Trump now claims he did not approve.

Reports were already circulating earlier Thursday that Trump had begun reaching out to Republicans in search of a possible replacement for Noem—and Mullin’s name popped up as a top contender.

This story has been updated.

Conservative MAGA ideologue Matt Schlapp has attempted to justify the killing of more than 100 young girls at an elementary school in southern Iran, by claiming they were saved from religious extremism. 

On Piers Morgan Uncensored, Schlapp was part of a panel discussion about the war in Iran and the bombing of the girls’ school that killed an estimated 175 people (nearly all young children). Journalist Peter Beinart argued to host Morgan that the United States and Israel were to blame even if the school was somehow hit by an Iranian missile.

“We know that if the U.S. and Israel had not attacked a country that poses no serious threat to them—Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons, America has thousands—that those girls would be alive,” Beinart said. Schlapp immediately jumped in. 

“They’d be alive in a burqa,” Schlapp said, adding “this is … a barbaric society,” before Morgan cut in and asked him to “hang on.”

Later, Schlapp attempted to defend his point. 

“It’s hypocritical to say that these attacks harmed women and children when those women and children, the young girls that you reference, would be … live a life in a barbaric, unequal society behind a burqa, with no ability to make career choices,” Schlapp said, outraging left-wing commentator Cenk Uygur.

“So just kill them?” Uygur said.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying either,” said Schlapp.

“That is what you said,” Uygur replied, before Schlapp went on to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran.

Schlapp is head of the influential American Conservative Union, which organizes the well-known Conservative Political Action Conference with top Republican officials every year. But despite his status (and allegations of sexual misconduct), Schlapp is peddling anti-Muslim bigotry and doesn’t even have his facts right. 

While women in Iran still have to deal with patriarchal laws under a theocratic government that human rights groups have criticized, Iran isn’t such a backwater that it’s preferable for women and young girls to be dead. Women in the country have high rates of education, making up the majority of university graduates. Burqas are mostly worn in Afghanistan and are not even common in Iran, although conservative religious women in the country sometimes opt for the chador, a loose garment that leaves the face and hands open. 

But Schlapp is repeating an unfortunately common trope in the U.S., particularly among conservatives: Muslim and Arab lives are cheap, especially when we are at war with them. To these bigots, Muslim societies are backward and if the U.S. government inflicts something bad on them, it’s their society’s fault. Schlapp and the rest of the people ought to realize that women and girls, as well as every other Iranian civilian, deserve to live full lives instead of being killed in a reckless war.  

Kristi Noem has officially been ousted as homeland security secretary after her disastrous display defending her monthslong mismanagement of the agency overseeing Donald Trump’s horrific deportation scheme.

Trump announced Thursday that Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin would replace Noem beginning at the end of March. Not only does Trump not have the authority to appoint Mullin as permanent secretary, but the MAGA Republican isn’t even eligible to serve as acting secretary according to laws that govern Cabinet-level vacancies.

The president congratulated Noem on her “numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!)” and declared that she would be reassigned as special envoy for “the Shield of the Americas,” a made-up international security initiative that has yet to be announced.

Noem’s stint as head of DHS truly fell apart this week after she crumbled during back-to-back hearings before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. In addition to repeatedly lying under oath, Noem couldn’t explain away a $220 million border security ad campaign starring herself—that Trump now claims he did not approve.

The so-called “ICE Barbie” flailed when asked about her semi-public affair with DHS adviser Corey Lewandowski, paying millions to a company that had only existed for a week, and lying that a U.S. citizen shot by federal agents was a domestic terrorist. All in all, it was a calamitous pair of appearances—and they cost her Cabinet position.

“The Shield of the Americas” is a term used by the Trump administration to describe its foreign policy for the Western hemisphere. The administration is slated to host the Shield of the Americas summit with select Latin American leaders in Miami on Friday, and will formally announce the initiative the following day.

Reports were already circulating earlier Thursday that Trump had begun reaching out to Republicans in search of a possible replacement for Noem—and Mullin’s name popped up as a top contender.

Mullin has repeatedly gotten into the news this week for offering flimsy defenses of Trump’s illegal military campaign in Iran. Mullin was called out for referring to the U.S. aerial bombings as a “war,” even though they were not authorized by Congress (he then said that was “a misspoke”). He was also slammed for waxing poetic about the “smell” and “taste” of war, even though he has never served in the military.

Shortly after delivering an awkward keynote to the Major Cities Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Noem released a statement thanking Trump for her new made-up title. “The Western Hemisphere is absolutely critical for U.S. security. In this new role, I will be able to build on the partnerships and national security expertise, I forged over the last 13 months as Secretary of Homeland Security,” she wrote on X.

This story has been updated.

Update: President Trump announced Wednesday that he is nominating Senator Markwayne Mullin as the next DHS secretary.

Donald Trump is upset enough with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that he’s reportedly considering Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma or Senator Steve Daines of Montana as the potential next DHS secretary. 

The National Review reports that the president is floating Mullin’s name in private discussions, after Noem said in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday that Trump approved of a $220 million DHS ad campaign heavily featuring her and filmed in part at Mount Rushmore. Mullin told the conservative magazine Wednesday that he hasn’t spoken with the president.

“I haven’t talked to him about the hearing at all, I can’t help you there, I’m sorry,” Mullin said in a hallway in Capitol Hill.

The White House has also contacted Daines’s office, according to NBC News. The senator announced Wednesday that he is not seeking reelection this year. Meanwhile, Fox News contributor and former Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz has told Trump that he is interested in the position, and in joining the administration in general. 

With DHS partially shut down since February 13, Noem is under increased scrutiny from Republicans as well as Democrats. Before she involved the president, Noem’s ad campaign was already receiving criticism over the fact that an eight-day-old company run by the husband of former DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin got the contract despite not even having a website. 

Noem also had a rough House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, where she was asked about her all-but-confirmed affair with top aide Corey Lewandowski. Democratic Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove called out Noem’s “judgment and decision-making” and accused her of a conflict of interest as well as risking national security. Noem’s only response was that bringing up the rumored romance was “garbage” and “offensive.”  

It’s telling that Noem’s mismanagement of DHS and the many illegal actions committed by federal agents under her purview aren’t the reasons why her job is in peril. Democrats have been pushing for her impeachment for those reasons for weeks, but now she might lose her job just because she made Trump mad. 

President Trump has declared that he wants to essentially handpick Iran’s next leader, an extremely bleak yet unsurprising development in this regime-change war.

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodríguez] in Venezuela,” Trump told Axios in an eight-minute phone interview Thursday, emphasizing that Mojtaba Khamenei, the most likely successor to his recently assassinated father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was “unacceptable.”

“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said, also mentioning that the younger Khamenei coming to power would bring the U.S. back to war on Iran “in five years.”

This confirms previous reporting that the Trump administration thinks toppling a nearly 50-year regime that seems prepared for a dragged-out war will be some simple plug-and-play situation, and that the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and subsequent deals with his successors in Venezuela can be a direct template for Iran, even though it was a wildly different event.

Trump has previously confirmed that even if Iran did have someone like Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela, they were long dead.

“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” he said on Sunday. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.” He said the same on Tuesday, as well.

This claim displays the confidence the Trump administration has that the Iranian government will simply capitulate.

This story has been updated.

Seriously, what is it with Republicans and their Nazi-loving group chats?

A group chat started by Abel Carvajal, the secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party, for conservative college students at Florida International University quickly devolved into a breeding ground for moral depravity, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

Carvajal said he created the group after Charlie Kirk was killed in September. Members of the group chat made violent and racist remarks about Black people, using variations of the n-word more than 400 times, as well as using slurs when discussing Jewish and gay people, and regularly called women “whores.”

Dariel Gonzalez, a former board member of FIU’s College Republicans, was responsible for a large chunk of racist and antisemitic comments. “Ew you had colored professors?!” he wrote at one point, adding that he personally refused “to be indoctrinated by the coloreds.”

Gonzalez also used slurs to discuss Jewish people. “You can f–k all the k—s you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate,” he said.

Ian Valdes, the president of FIU’s chapter of Turning Point USA, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew.”

In another message, Valdes called for a “moratorium on immigration” unless it was a person from a first-world country, before clarifying: “Yeah I obviously mean whites.”

Valdes renamed the group chat from “Uber R—s Yapping Inc.” (using a slur to refer to people with mental disabilities) to “Gooning in Agartha.” “Gooning” refers to the ritual of continual masturbation performed by some internet-poisoned individuals, and “Agartha” is a mythical civilization at the center of the earth, where white nationalists have imagined a white master race originates.

In the chat, Valdes described Agartha as “esoteric nazism essentially,” and Gonzalez described Agartha as “Nazi heaven sort of.”

At one point, Gonzalez wrote a message that simply said: “Total negro death.”

William Bejerano, who once tried to start a pro-life group at Miami-Dade College, then launched into a lengthy n-word-laced tirade of ways to kill Black people, including crucifying, beheading, exterminating, and curb-stomping. Students for Life in America previously published an essay in which Bejerano decried limits on free speech at his school—but has since removed it.

Carvajal occasionally participated in the conversation, and even deleted others’ messages, but never shut the group chat down. He even recruited some of the group’s extremist members to serve as committee members in the Miami-Dade GOP, sources told The Floridian.

“Had I known and had I seen some of these messages I would have called the police,” Carvajal told The Floridian. Asked if he would resign, Carvajal said: “No. Of course not. Of course not, for you know, for a chat where the messages that were stated were not mine.”

Florida International University told the Miami New Times that the heinous group chat is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.

Last year, leaders of the Young Republicans were discovered participating in another group chat that included slurs and praise for Hitler.

These forums filled to the brim with racism, antisemitism, rape jokes, and other filth are becoming the norm for a new generation of conservatives fueled by the white nationalist musings of people like Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and Kirk.

Despite expressing frustration over Donald Trump’s war with Iran, some Democrats are still considering voting to boost military spending by billions of dollars.

At least four Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee haven’t ruled out additional funding for the Department of Defense: ranking member Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Senators Gary Peters of Michigan, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.

“I need to know the goals and the plan … I don’t rule anything out,” Slotkin told Politico. “I mean, we’re in it.”

“We have to look at what they need,” Reed said. “Some of it might be to fill in critical issues and other theaters of war they’ve taken things from.”

Defense and intelligence officials told Congress this week that the Pentagon may soon ask for emergency funding, but didn’t say when or how much it would need, although Politico reports that the White House is considering asking for $50 billion. But while some Democrats are open to new military funding, seven Democrats are needed to overcome a filibuster—and many others are not only skeptical of additional funding but outright hostile to the idea.

“Good luck. What Democrat is going to vote to fund an illegal war? I don’t think—with the exception of one Democrat—there will be any votes for it,” said Senator Chris Murphy Wednesday, likely referring to Senator John Fetterman, who was the lone Democrat to vote against a war powers resolution Tuesday requiring Trump to seek Congress’s approval for further military action in Iran.

Democrats in the House also scoffed at the idea of funding the war in Iran further.

Representative Pete Aguilar of California said he has “a duty and a responsibility to help protect this country” but is “incredibly skeptical” of giving emergency military funding for Trump. “It’s going to be pretty hard to move me off of a ‘no,’” he said.

“I mean, you lie to us, don’t consult us and then expect us to send more taxpayer money to a war that we shouldn’t have started with no plan and no answers,” said Representative Pat Ryan of New York, a military veteran. He called the $50 billion figure “outrageous.”

Several Senate Democrats left a Tuesday classified briefing on Iran aghast at the lack of planning by the administration, openly accusing the White House of lying, and worrying about whether ground troops would be deployed. To fund the war would require their concerns to be addressed, but even then, it won’t change the fact that Trump started a dangerous war on a whim.

The Trump administration is panicking over oil pricing spikes caused by the war it started on Iran.

An anonymous energy industry executive told Politico that Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a team led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and other top energy advisers on Trump’s team “are getting screamed at to find some good news” regarding bringing down gas prices. “Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative” of more expensive gas in the immediate future, the executive added.

The U.S-Israel joint attack on Iran and Iran’s subsequent retaliation on energy facilities across the Middle East has caused crude oil prices to rise by over $10 per barrel, causing pump prices to hit their highest peak since Trump’s inauguration.

Gas was already extremely expensive, even as Trump claimed the opposite. Earlier this week, the president dismissed the entire notion of the spike, stating that “if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, lower than even before.”

“Trump’s war in Iran (which is ‘not a war’) throws affordability out the window. Oil prices spiked this week to the highest since … the last time Trump bombed Iran,” political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen wrote Wednesday on X, referring to another massive spike in oil prices in June 2025. “He knows exactly what he’s doing to you and he doesn’t care.”

But now it seems that the Trump administration is moving more urgently to bring the prices down, even offering the military to protect oil tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran stated that it’d be bombing any that passed through. And that still may not be enough. Only time will tell how long Americans will put up with Trump losing them money at the gas pump.